


Rain

by Andy_Bee



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst/Comfort, Developing Relationship, First Love, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-16
Updated: 2017-09-16
Packaged: 2018-12-30 08:23:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12104646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andy_Bee/pseuds/Andy_Bee
Summary: Love blooms in the rain.





	Rain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zariya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zariya/gifts).



> To my darling, Dripta. This one is for you for I love your beautiful soul and brilliant mind. There are bits of me sprinkling in this story...I hope you like it. <33
> 
> So, I love the rain. There is an inexplicable joy that rises up inside me every time it rains. And it has been raining like mad here..., fogging up my windows...washing me clean...

*******

 

 

 

“Thranduil.  Are you okay?  Are you hurt?”

“No.  I’m fine.”

“Did your stepdad hurt you again?”

“No.”

“You would tell me right?”

“Right.”  

“I didn’t see you at school last week and I was so worried.”

“I was sick.”

“You were sick or did he make you sick?”

“I was just sick, Bard.”

“Are you okay now?”

“I’m all fine now.”

“I missed you.”

“I missed you, too.”

Bard and Thranduil had been best friends for as long as they could remember.  They attended the same grade school, then junior high school, and now high school.  They knew all there was to know about each other except for the one secret where Bard was falling head over heels in love with Thranduil.

The two boys sat side by side on a wooden bench, under the old metal awning of the used bookstore with their school bags next to them, listening to the raindrops drumming softly, making a plinking sound one after another.

“I love the rain,”  said Thranduil.  

Then he smiled widely, and it was the cutest thing Bard had ever seen in his life.   

“Hm?”  Bard didn’t quite catch what his friend said. He was distracted by the other boy’s smile…by the adorable, slightly crooked back teeth. 

“I said I love the rain. It makes me feel things.”

“Yeah. I love the rain too.”

The rain kept falling, hitting the awning in uniform rhythm, pelting and splattering fat droplets on the ground, and forming tiny pools of water on the uneven surface.  

“We are moving next week.”  Thranduil said quietly, barely a whisper but the words reverberated in Bard's ears so loudly they drowned out the plink-plonk sound of water striking steel.

“What?  Where?”  Bard asked, his hazel eyes widened in surprise.  His brain trying to catch up with the shocking news, and then hopefully unhear it. 

“To Moorhead.  My stepdad got a job there.”

Bard couldn't speak. His throat was scratchy, and his saliva was all icky in his mouth. His heart grew heavy inside his chest.  Just a minute ago he was breathing just fine, inhaling and savoring the fresh, musky aroma of nature’s cocktail— a mixture of nitrogen oxides produced by HV discharges releasing in the air when the rain hit the earth, and now he couldn’t breathe. 

The rain continued to pelt down mercilessly.  Gusts of wind blew the raindrops diagonally, and drizzling both boys with their moisture, but yet they sat unmoving.

The wind accelerated and it blew harder and harder.  It blew Thranduil’s long, pale hair wildly around his face, causing strands of it to stick to his sharp cheekbones.  The sight stirring up an urge in Bard to push those damp, gold strands back and away from his friend’s delicate face.

“But we won’t be able to see each other anymore…”  Bard sputtered out the obvious, stupidly. 

“Yeah.”  Thranduil exhaled.

“What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know.”

Bard’s eyes started to sting. It must be the cold, he thought…what with the wind whipping about, chilling the air.

“I’m going to miss you, Bard,”   Thranduil said, raising a hand to wipe the rain from his face,  his eyes were shiny and they shone clear like glass… so clear that Bard could see his own reflection in those orbs like they were mirrors.

“I’m going to miss you too, Thranduil,”  Bard said, rolling his lips together, working to unclog his throat.  “And make sure you stay out of your stepdad’s way. If he ever hurts you again, you need to tell on him okay?  I’m serious.  Call the police.”  Bard said, feeling the cruel twist of fate ripping his heart apart, and damn if he didn’t start to cry.  He pushed himself back further against the back of the bench and pulled his legs up on it, wrapping his arms around them. Then he turned his face away in an effort to hold in his tears.   

Out of his peripheral vision, he saw Thranduil was doing the same thing as him.  The slender boy pulled his long legs onto the bench, hiding his face between his arms that rested on his bent knees. 

Then Bard heard a sniffle, and he knew what it meant.  His best friend was crying.

“Don’t cry, Thranduil.”  Bard frantically turned around to face the other boy.  “Don’t cry.”

Thranduil looked at him, wiping a sleeve-covered arm across his nose.

“I— I love you, Bard.”  Thranduil blurted out, his voice wavering.  His cheeks were flaming red, and his wet blue eyes rounded like he couldn’t believe he just told him that.  Then he quickly hid his face in the crook of his arm again.

Bard blinked.  

Hang on…

His heart picked up, vibrating madly in his chest.  The rest of the world blurred from his vision, all except for the vision of a beautiful blonde boy sitting next to him.  Bard stared at him…at his boyish form, and he realised why he loved him so much.  Love. Love.  Thranduil said, “I love you”.  He spoke the three words that Bard had held inside of him for years… And now Bard couldn’t even fucking contain the grin that spread over his face, so big that his cheeks were hurting, and his eyes became moist.

“I love you too, Thranduil.”  Bard barely got the words out through the surge of emotion. “I have always loved you….for years…, and I know I always will.”  

Thranduil immediately looked at him.  Then he pressed his hands to his eyes, before lowering them and stared disbelievingly at him.  His lips quivering slightly.

And suddenly their faces were just a foot from each other.  The heat of their breaths exchanging back and forth, warming the small gap.  

“I have been waiting for this moment for so long and now you’re leaving, and…”  Bard’s heart contracted, causing his voice to choke on his despair.  

And Thranduil pressed his lips together, staring at him with sad eyes which made Bard even sadder.

Oh, it hurt.  He didn’t want Thranduil to leave.  He wanted to be with him. He wanted to keep his best friend by his side forever.  He wanted to know him, to really know him…every inch and every curve of him.  He wanted to hold him night and day.  He wanted to wake up and see his smiling face.  He wanted to go to bed and feel his soft touches.  He wanted to protect him…to catch him in case he falls… He wanted to watch the way Thranduil’s skin shined under the moonlight, the way his hair caught the sunlight, the way his eyes glowed under the stars, the way his mouth curved sweetly when he smiled. He wanted to feel the warmth of Thranduil's lips against his…

He leaned in, closing the space between them, and sliding his shaky, cool hands around the back of Thranduil’s cold bare neck.  His fingers trembled as he pushed back the wild, soggy, long locks, feeling a shudder ran up and down through the other boy’s slim body.  

Their eyes slid close.  They leaned in closer and closer, and then their lips touched— and Bard could taste the rain on his friend’s lips, could envision the blue of the droplets in his friend’s eyes…

 

 

 

*******

 

 

The rain started to come down in torrents, huge booms of thunder rattled the roof as lightning darted across the sky in white flashes of lights.  The wind swept down from above, hurling the rain in slanted sheets, smashing them against the windowpane in a steady pace.

Bard quietly pushed back the blanket and sat up in bed.  He peered out of the window, at the rain, remembering the day he had to say goodbye to his best friend…to his heart.  It had rained just like now— hard and unrelenting. 

That was twelve years ago.  They were just teenagers— He was barely eighteen and Thranduil was just sixteen.  

After Thranduil left, Bard had a breakdown— A full-on breakdown, where he cried and cried, his arms limp by his sides.  The heartbreak was like nothing Bard had ever felt, and it had hurt more than he ever thought was possible.  His heart was shattered, but he didn’t want to pick up the pieces.  He couldn’t do it.  Couldn’t put it together for someone else.  So he allowed them to get washed away by the rain.  

Bard inhaled deeply.  

Outside, the rain still pounding and hadn’t let up one bit.

“Hey.  What are you doing up?” A gentle hand tugged at him to lay back down.

Bard turned to face his soulmate, the one and only who was able to put back together the pieces of his broken heart and made him whole.  The one who had held true for him through all these years… through all the ups and downs.  

“Miss me already?”  Bard said, laughing.

“You wish!  It’s just cold without you.  I need you to keep me warm.”

“Admit it.  You miss me.”

“Maybe…”  

Bard laid back down, snuggled into the familiar warm embrace, and sighing contentedly. There was a soft kiss on his neck and he let his eyes flutter shut.  Then he felt a smile on his skin. Without opening his eyes Bard could still see the cute boyish grin, and even cuter were those slightly crooked back teeth.

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> "There is a courage in loving fiercely."


End file.
